Finance

System Accounts

The accounts the app itself posts to — created with your subscription, protected from deletion.

System accounts are the accounts Trabalance posts to on your behalf — every invoice, bill, receipt, payment, tax line and payroll run routes through one or more of them. They are created with your subscription: the four core accounts for every business, plus the accounts each bundle needs (invoicing, expenses, payroll, inventory, and so on). They carry a "System" badge in the Chart of Accounts list, cannot be deleted or disabled, and their classification is locked.

Where system accounts are seen — the Chart of Accounts filtered to Source: System, the locked edit modal, and the delete refusal.

Finding Them

Navigate to: Finance → Chart of Accounts → Filter → Source: System

Core Accounts (every business)

Account	Element	System?	Purpose
Opening Balance Equity	Equity	Yes	The offset for opening-balance documents and journals. Nets to zero once every starting balance is in.
Retained Earnings	Equity	Yes	Prior-period profit. The reports derive it at run time; nothing is posted here at close.
Owner's Equity	Equity	No	The owner's investment — an ordinary editable account.
Owner's Drawings	Equity	No	Withdrawals by the owner — an ordinary editable account.

Bundle Accounts

Only the bundles in your subscription create their accounts. Accounts marked Yes carry the "System" badge in the Chart of Accounts list.

Invoicing

Account	System?	Used For
Accounts Receivable	Yes	Customer balance control account — every invoice, credit note, receipt and refund
Sales	Yes	Default income account for invoices and cash sales
Cost of Sales	Yes	Cost of inventory items sold
Sales Tax Payable	Yes	Default account for Sales-type tax codes
WHT Receivable	Yes	Default account for Receipt (Withholding) tax codes
Discount Allowed	Yes	Settlement and line discounts given to customers
Receipts to Deposit	Yes	Holding account for customer receipts pending deposit
Uncategorized Income	Yes	Where money-in statement lines land until they are classified
Shipping & Delivery Income	No	Delivery charges — an ordinary starter account

Expenses

Account	System?	Used For
Accounts Payable	Yes	Vendor balance control account — every bill, debit note, payment and refund
Purchases	Yes	Default expense account for bills
Purchases Tax Recoverable	Yes	Tax paid on purchases (input tax)
WHT Payable	Yes	Default account for Payment (Withholding) tax codes
Discount Received	Yes	Settlement and line discounts taken from vendors
Payments to Reconcile	Yes	Holding account for vendor payments pending reconciliation
Uncategorized Expenses	Yes	Where money-out statement lines land until they are classified

Ledger accounting (starter accounts — none are system)

Accounts
Bank Charges, Office Supplies, Rent Expense, Utilities, Telephone & Internet, Travel & Transport, Repairs & Maintenance, Professional Fees, Insurance, Depreciation Expense, Miscellaneous Expenses, Bad Debt Expense, Interest Income, Other Income, Interest Expense

Payroll

Account	System?	Used For
Salaries & Wages	Yes	The usual expense side of a pay schedule (you choose the accounts per pay item)
Payroll Tax Liabilities	Yes	Statutory deductions withheld from pay
Net Salaries Payable	Yes	Net pay owed to employees
Employee Advances	No	Advances paid through payment requests
Staff Welfare, Training & Development	No	Ordinary starter accounts

Other bundles

Bundle	System accounts	Starter accounts
Requisition	Requisition Payable	—
Inventory	Inventory Asset, Inventory Adjustments	Inventory Write-Off
Production	Work in Progress, Manufacturing Overhead	Direct Labour, Raw Materials
Fixed assets	Accumulated Depreciation - Furniture, - Vehicles, - Equipment	Furniture & Equipment, Computer Equipment, Motor Vehicles, Land & Buildings
Projects	—	Project Revenue, Project Costs
Intercompany	Intercompany Receivable, Intercompany Payable	—

Editing System Accounts

When you open a system account's edit modal, the form shows "System account — classification locked." The element pills, statement group, Type and Sub Type are disabled. You can still edit the name and description.

Deleting or Disabling System Accounts

System accounts can be neither deleted nor disabled. Selecting one with Delete skips it and names it: "System account cannot be deleted. You can disable it instead if it has zero balance." Disabling is refused too, naming the account. If your business never uses one — for example Work in Progress in a business that does not manufacture — leave it; an account with no entries has no effect on any report.

✅NOTE

The protection is wider than the badge. Every account created with your subscription is protected from deletion and disabling, including the starter accounts that do not carry the "System" badge — Bank Charges, Interest Income and the fixed-asset accounts among them. What protects an account is the role it holds in the system, not how it is labelled in the list. Accounts you create are freely deletable while they carry no posted entries and no balance.

⚠️WARNING

Renaming is not blocked on any account. A system account's classification is locked, but its name can be changed — and every report, picker and document then shows the new name. Rename with care: calling Accounts Receivable something else does not change what posts to it.

Why These Accounts Exist

Account Group	Why It Cannot Be User-Defined
Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable	Every invoice, bill, receipt and payment posts to these control accounts; party detail lives on the lines beneath them.
Sales, Purchases, Cost of Sales	The defaults a document line posts to when an item has no account of its own.
Sales Tax Payable, Purchases Tax Recoverable, WHT Receivable, WHT Payable	The defaults a tax code posts to by type. A tax code can be pointed at another account, but the system default must exist.
Uncategorized Income / Uncategorized Expenses	Statement lines sent to Classification post here until you assign the real account. Both must be empty before a month can be locked in Financial Close.
Opening Balance Equity	Opening-balance documents and migration journals balance to this account. After full setup it nets to zero.
Receipts to Deposit / Payments to Reconcile	Holding accounts for cash movements that have not yet reached a bank statement.